Roomba 620 vs 761

Ever since “The Jetsons” first hit TV screens in the 1960’s we all have wanted a perky little robot to do all of our cleaning chores for us. We fantasize about being able to kick back with a nice cool drink while the little automaton makes all of our messes disappear.

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Well it isn’t quite “Rosie”, but modern technology has given life to the robotic vacuum. Little pancake looking, cat carrying marvels that wander around our houses cleaning up all the dirt, dust, and daily muck that we produce. Currently, the market has so many options for robot vacuuming companions, so we put together a comparison of two of the top options f﻿rom ﻿iRobot - Roomba 620 vs 761.

Which is better?

The Roomba 620 is a technological masterpiece with acoustic sensors. It finds areas of concentrated dirt that tell the 620 to concentrate its efforts on that area. 620 also has the ability to track down its own charging station. Click to view the price of Roomba 620.

If you want a robotic vacuum that's more accurate, righted easier, then Roomba 761 is the best choice. It has many features of the 620 but it's even easier to use. The motor is really quite and 761 is great for all kinds of dirt and pet hair. Click here to view the price of the Roomba 761.

QUICK COMPARISON TABLE

The Roomba 620

The Roomba 620 weighs 12.8 pounds which gives it enough weight to push around the stubborn dust bunnies invading our workshop. At only three inches tall, the 620 is slim enough to slide under the majority of furniture. It won’t fit under some of the cabinets and shelving we have, but it was easy enough to slide those a little away from the wall to get cleaning behind them.

The 620 is a technological masterpiece with acoustic sensors. We were seriously impressed that such a small vacuum would have this feature. The idea behind the sensors is finding areas of concentrated dirt that tells the 620 to concentrate its efforts on that area.

As if the acoustic sensing wasn’t cool enough, this mighty dirt nemesis has the ability to track down its own charging station. It doesn’t just die in the middle of the floor, or worse in some concealed spot under couch or workbench. Instead, when the battery gets low it heads back to the charge base.

Check out this video showing the 620 in action:

You can see that it’s a little slow to reorient itself when coming into contact with obstacles, but does right itself, and provides good area coverage.

CONS

Roomba 761

The Roomba 761 takes all the thought out of sweeping and vacuuming a home. When we were looking into this model we were admittedly a little skeptical about some of the claims we read. However, the simplicity of setting up and using the 761 surprised us.

The major benefit is the one button push to clean feature. You literally set it on the floor and push “go”. To make it more convenient, because who wants to bend over, you get a remote. Using the remote allowed us to set a seven day program. Making sure the robot isn’t underfoot, and cleans when we want it to clean. The stair detection and obstacle detection made us not worry about letting the 761 run mostly unsupervised.

Here’s a video of 761 doing its business:

Like the 620, it can reorient easily, and the video shows how it probes multiple times to make sure it finds the best route.